From the Blog

Better World Books Awarded 2010 WasteWise Gold Award

ATLANTA, GA (December 9, 2010) - The United States Environmental Protection Agency has again recognized environmentally conscious online bookseller Better World Books for its contributions to protecting the environment, this time for its efforts on behalf of climate control. Better World Books is the EPA's 2010 WasteWise Gold Achievement award winner in the Climate Change category.

Better World Books collects and sells new and used books online, diverting waste from landfills and donating a portion of each sale to help literacy initiatives worldwide. All books are resold online, recycled, or donated to libraries or literacy groups. When it comes to waste reduction, the company has successfully re-used or recycled more than 40 million books, while raising over $8.5 million in funding for literacy and education initiatives worldwide. In 2009, the company recycled 7,090 tons of materials, which is the carbon dioxide equivalent to removing 2,900 passenger vehicles from the road for one year.

WasteWise is a voluntary program designed to help companies evaluate and improve their overall environmental commitment through changes in how they manage their waste. The program currently has almost 2,700 participating partners and endorsers. Gold awards are given to WasteWise participants that focus on a specific area and achieve exceptional results. Only one award is given for each of 12 award categories for 2009.

"The amount of carbon created every year from used books in landfills and new book production is alarming. We're proud to help climate control efforts by encouraging the reuse of books and by offering carbon neutral shipping," said Better World Books CEO David Murphy. "We are honored to be recognized by the EPA for our work moving discarded books out of landfills and back into the reading cycle."

Every book bought on BetterWorldBooks.com funds global literacy through its non-profit literacy partners, including the National Center for Family Literacy, Books for Africa, Room to Read, Worldfund, and Invisible Children. The company benefits nearly 100 additional non-profit organizations every year.

ABOUT BETTER WORLD BOOKS
Better World Books (www.BetterWorldBooks.com) is a for-profit social enterprise that collects and sells books online with each sale generating funds for literacy initiatives in the U.S. and around the world. With more than eight million new and used titles in stock, Better World Books is a self-sustaining company that balances the social, economic and environmental values of its stakeholders. Better World Books diverts books from landfills by conducting book drives on 1,800 college campuses, and by collecting discards from over 2,000 libraries nationwide. Since its founding in 2003, the Mishawaka, Ind.-based company has raised over $8.5 million for its non-profit literacy and library; donated over 3.3 million books; re-used or recycled more than 46 million pounds of books; achieved over 15,000 tons of carbon offsets through carbon-neutral shipping, and created more than 200 full-time jobs with meaningful benefits.